Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K.S. Alagiri on Saturday said the prospects of victory were high for his party’s candidate in the Nanguneri Assembly constituency, where an election is due on October 21.
The constituency fell vacant due to the resignation of Congress MLA H. Vasantha Kumar, following his election from the Kanyakumari Lok Sabha constituency. “Both the DMK and the Congress have a strong organisational base in the constituency. Moreover, the good work done by Mr. Vasantha Kumar during his tenure will come in handy for us,” Mr. Alagiri said.
Senior Congress leader and former TNCC president Kumari Anandan has already expressed his desire to contest the seat because it was vacated by Mr. Vasantha Kumar, who happens to be his brother. Though the party was not averse to the idea of fielding him, his age was coming in the way of making a final decision, sources in the Congress party said.
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In fact, the DMK was also keen on contesting from the constituency since it was particular about increasing its tally in the Tamil Nadu Assembly. But Congress leaders succeeded in securing the seat for their party.
“I met Mr. Stalin some time ago with Congress Legislative Party leader K.R. Ramasamy and requested him to allot the seat to our party since the constituency had elected our party’s candidate. He wanted to discuss the issue with his party leaders before making a decision. Today, he came forward to allot the seat to us,” Mr. Alagiri said.